Victim Failed To Notice That Bullet Hit His Head

Larry McNeil's wife took one look at the blood on her husband's head and decided to drive him to a hospital.

McNeil had been shot but didn't know it.

A bullet had passed through the back of his head and out his right ear.

The 26-year-old Orlando man was in fair condition late Saturday at Orlando Regional Medical Center, said Martha Workman, hospital spokeswoman.

''He's sitting up, awake and alert,'' she said.

McNeil was shot during an argument in a pickup basketball game in a park, said Orlando police Lt. Mike Mankins.

Workman said doctors didn't know what course the bullet followed as it passed through McNeil's head. ''It's hard to say what happened,'' she said.

Doctors did know, however, that the bullet entered the left back side of his head and exited through his right ear, Workman said.

''I would say he's really lucky,'' said his wife, who would not give her name.

Police had no suspects in the shooting, which occurred at about 6 p.m. at Al Coith Park at Gore Street and Delaney Avenue, Mankins said.

McNeil had stopped to play in a basketball game with men he didn't know, Mankins said. He got into an argument over a foul call and ''the benches cleared,'' Mankins said.

McNeil flipped a man over his back during the fight, Mankins said. The man then told a friend to get his handgun, and the man fired three or four shots at McNeil, hitting him once in the head as he was walking to his car, Mankins said. The caliber of the gun was not known.

But McNeil, who had been hit in the head during the fight, didn't realize he had been shot. He drove home to his wife, who told him, ''You know, it looks like you have a hole in your head.''

McNeil, bleeding from the ear, was driven by his wife to the hospital at the Orlando Naval Training Center. X-rays showed he had been shot, Mankins said. McNeil then was flown by helicopter to ORMC.

Police were investigating the shooting Saturday night, as McNeil was undergoing tests.

''He seemed to be doing pretty good,'' McNeil's wife said after speaking with him at the hospital.